Most of the media world, it seems, has seen EPIC 2014, the short, scary Flash movie about the future of the media from the perspective of the year 2014. As scary as it was, predicting the the rise of “Googlezon” (the merger of Google and Amazon) and the death of newspapers, I get the feeling that things might be even worse than predicted (but that’s fodder for another column).
The two young journalists (and former Poynter staffers) who created EPIC 2014 in 2004, Robin Sloan and Matt Thompson, have a blog where they highlight sites they like, articles they believe are worth reading, etc. The site is called Snarkmarket, and I have it bookmarked to visit regularly.
The reason I like their site is that it is both fun and useful — a rare combination among blogs. I also like the range of topics, ideas and interests they cover. Some of the stuff is so hip (Thompson is 25, Sloan’s 26) that I feel completely out of the loop, but the blog is still worth reading. A bonus: Despite its name, there’s not much snarkiness to be found.
Here are just a couple of items they have blogged that I might have missed otherwise:
- From Thompson: “Today, Garrick Van Buren introduced me to Cin-o-matic, which is a) my new favorite thing, and b) apparently made by a local. Sorta like MetaCritic, only you can choose from a list of critics whose movie scores you’d like to aggregate, and it’s mashed up with information about what’s playing at your local theaters.”
- From Sloan: “God. The LAT series by David Zucchino and Rick Loomis on battlefield medicine in Iraq (part 1, part 2, part 3) is riveting.”
- From Thompson: “A combo lock that uses words instead of numbers. I dig it.” [A posting about WordLock.com — I am terrible with combination locks, so I dig it, too.]
YOUR TURN: Send me suggestions for sites you find both fun AND useful by e-mailing poynter@sree.net. Meanwhile, I am finally getting around to my follow-up column about Social Networking for Journalists and am looking to connect with readers at LinkedIn.com [my profile]. Please share your tips and thoughts about using LinkedIn and its competitors.
Sree’s Links
Sree’s “Blogging for Journalists” workshop: Wednesday, May 10, 2006, at Columbia University in New York City — a one-night workshop on starting a blog — or improving one you already have. Lots of tips and ideas.
